December 2023 Channel Update – Happy Holidays!
Added 2023-12-24 01:33:51 +0000 UTCHi hi,
It’s the last update of the year! I hope you’re enjoying some restful & relaxing holidays with your family and friends ❄️ Unfortunately I have no time off from my day job at all, but I'm hoping my coworkers going away will effectively turn it into a pseudo-vacation for me too lol.
TL;DR
- Finished: DAI, Invincible, Slay the Princess
- Ongoing: Spider-Man 2, This Bed We Made
- Upcoming: no specific plans yet! Maybe more first looks
Finished Stuff
Dragon Age: Inquisition (96 parts): We have a wrap on Dragon Age for now! In short: the main story content was perfectly fine; the companions were compelling and endearing. The cliffhanger-ish ending also leaves a lot of anticipation for the next game, and now I’m all catch up & ready for it.
I think most will agree this game’s weakest area is the MMO-style fetch quests. It’s a shame because it sort of has the same problem as FF16: they didn’t even have to improve the quality of the existing stuff to make it a better game, all they had to do is cut it out. But they didn’t, and so completionist players (vs. critical path players) are the ones who end up having a more muddled experience for it.
On a broader point for the channel: Games like FF16 and DAI this year are really making me rethink the way I approach let’s plays. I’m normally completionist-leaning, but the added context of all this being a recorded thing to be shared out into the world means I need to make judgment calls on whether this style of play, or at least the inclusion of all the content, is always appropriate. This doesn’t mean I’m changing anything I’m currently doing, but it’s something I’d like to be more conscious of for the future.
The Invincible (6 parts): Based off the book of the same title by Stanisław Lem, this is the story of an astrobiologist surviving on a foreign planet, learning its alien secrets. The sci-fi, retro-futuristic aesthetic is well established, but the dialogue and characterization can be quite shaky. It seems sometimes it’s because they tried to forcibly include references to the book, and other times the English localization is just lacking, etc. Still enjoyable overall if you’re interested in hard sci-fi plots.
Slay the Princess (12 parts): A visual novel where a hero must slay a princess in order to save the world from certain doom. I’d rather not elaborate much for those who don’t know anything (just like how people told me to not look anything up), but this game takes “your choices matter” quite seriously. There were a few moments I found particularly memorable and heart wrenching (ie. thorn route) and I’m keeping an eye on the expanded content next year.
As mentioned last update, I went a bit crazy with the first looks!! I’ll mostly let the videos speak for themselves but in rough ascending order of how much I enjoyed their beginning sections:
- ULTROS (preview, full release in Feb 2024): A metroidvania with psychedelic colours with the player trapped on an alien spaceship/sarcophagus. I didn’t find the gameplay quite satisfying – compared to something like Hollow Knight, it feels stiff w/ the character getting locked into animations with no way to cancel out of it.
- Blood West: A tactical stealth shooter in a Weird West/Eldritch horror setting. The graphics and controls are kinda retro (think Half-Life 2), but the immersive simmy and stealth elements were engaging.
- Jusant: A meditative rock-climbing puzzler is the surface layer, and underneath there is a mystery to solve regarding why the waters and tides receded.
- COCOON: A bird’s eye POV puzzler by the gameplay designer of LIMBO/INSIDE, and it really shows – so many things are intuitive despite the lack of words and dialogue.
- Thirsty Suitors: South Asian girl messes up everything in her life and goes home to face her disappointed parents + the dozens of exes she’s wronged. It is as every bit crazy as it already sounds 😂 (I’m kinda interested in continuing this one…)
Current Stuff
Spider-Man 2: By completion percentage I’m about half-way through. So far it clearly meets that minimum bar of quality and polish first-party Sony games often have, the core Spider-Man gameplay feels great as usual, but the main storyline hasn’t quite picked up.
This Bed We Made: We’re a maid working a hotel in the 1950s, wrapped up in an unrevealed mystery that has the police questioning us by the end. All the snooping through people’s rooms is engaging, the voice acting is great, and the 1950s-isms are hilarious (“THE HOMOSEXUALS ARE OUT TO GET US….” pamphlets). This isn’t a long game so I should be done in a few more parts.
Upcoming Stuff
With the holidays I haven’t thought too far ahead as to what’s next. Spider-Man 2 will keep me occupied for a little more; I suspect after This Bed We Made I’ll be back to some first looks, but not necessarily confined to indie stuff. Some on my mind:
- Undertale Yellow (not by Toby Fox, but a really good fan game it sounds like)
- Ghost Trick
- God of War Ragnarok Valhalla DLC (apparently this isn’t just a roguelike and has decent story)
- Lies of P (I know this doesn’t seem like my usual style, but I’ve had a copy of this sitting around for a while so I might as well take a look lol)
I’ve also written down some of the stuff you guys suggested from the comments from the last update too. Not sure how much of this I’ll get to, but thinking about the possibilities is fun anyway hahaha.
(As for longer titles: I think I’ll be ready to consider the bigger stuff again maybe in mid to late-January... TBH, those daily, hour-long DAI videos from Aug to Nov was probably the hardest I’ve pushed myself, and the idea of getting into another thing of that magnitude is daunting. Whatever the game ends up being, I do think I need to slow down and not go full out like That again.)
Not Related to Video Games At All
Some of you might already know I’m a mega Japanese idol weeb outside of gaming! Just for fun I uploaded a reaction video over on a second Weeblonz channel of me (& my friends) watching the finale for Produce 101 Japan The Girls, an idol audition survival show. I got very into it, and act, uh, a little, different……. than how I normally am on the gaming channel……………. don’t judge me too hard okay 😂
ANYWAYS UHHH that’s it for 2023 I guess!!!!! Thanks for your support as always, and just sharing your time with me in general. I hope your holidays are going great, and may we experience some good ass video games in 2024 as well 🍹
Cheers,
Welonz
Comments
101 was pretty fun. BUT, can't wait for your playthrough of BG3, we will all have fun watching you getting nuts trying to complete that one.
Vinh NPL
2024-01-17 07:12:56 +0000 UTCHappy holidays Weeblonz!! Despite your unfortunate work schedule, I hope you’ve enjoyed the holiday season thus far. I am happy to say I am back to enjoying your Let’s Plays!! When I left my comment the other week I it made me think about the channel and what I’ve missed out on.. I found the sequel to AI: Somnium Files and got so excited. I’ve balanced out watching your videos while I do chores so it’s allowed me to watch your content without needing to dedicate time. It’s so appreciated how you translate the original Japanese dialogue so I understand the jokes, among other game details. I’m glad that despite years of this you still seem so engaged with the game and Let’s Play style of gameplay. I think that’s always been the charm to your channel..? You’ve always come across as authentic and genuine in your commentary and reactions, your cultural background allows for a lot more nuance than what an American or even just English speaking Let’s Players can offer. I’m excited to finish this set of videos and hopefully continue to have time to watch more. Apologies if you got notifications for each comment I made and deleted.. Mobile was not allowing me to separate into paragraphs, instead it was posting my comment. I figured out a little too late I should just use my notes app. Sorry!! Don’t work too hard and thank you for the content. I’ll probably comment again raving about the play through. Lies of P is a gem of a game btw, highly recommend. Hopefully I catch the vote!
Fideriti
2023-12-28 07:46:13 +0000 UTCOh man, Lies of P would be great. For the type of game it is it isn't super long (I'd say it's a mid-length game) and it has a very intriguing story that you don't need to go poking around for as much as in other games like it. I think it might be a better fit for your channel than you suspect. Whether it's a first look or a full LP I'll be there for sure. Happy holidays!
Ulfenaar
2023-12-27 18:53:21 +0000 UTCHahah I appreciate that, although if I do end up going that slow, I will be playing BG3 all the way into 2026 😂
Materwelonz
2023-12-25 19:24:32 +0000 UTCFor Lies of P I am just thinking of how much I'll like it as a first look at the moment :) Both this and Elden Ring are a little too long to decide to play on a whim...!
Materwelonz
2023-12-25 19:23:33 +0000 UTCYou've put into words basically eeeverything I was thinking about! Another option I thought about was still doing the stuff but quickly verbally summarizing what happened. (The 10 hours of side questing at the very end of FF16 could've used that...)
Materwelonz
2023-12-25 19:21:42 +0000 UTCMerry Christmas / Happy holidays! 2023 was pretty great in terms of video games, so let's hope 2024 will be even better. Thirsty Suitors is super fun, so it would be great if you decided to continue. For the possible, upcoming longer game, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I hope you will consider Baldur's Gate 3:). Sorry to hear you don't have any time off, hopefully the period between Christmas and New Year is not very busy for you. I'm currently enjoying a well deserved week off after a very exhausting December and playing Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, so life is good:).
captain carrot
2023-12-25 12:04:59 +0000 UTCHave a nice holiday. 💚 Most of your gameplays are interesting to me but the big part is that you enjoy those games and I wouldn't want it to be a chore for you. Regarding long rpgs (which is my favorite genre 😅), personally I would be happy even with one BG3 video per week when you feel like playing it sometimes, haha.
ElissaFae
2023-12-25 11:28:37 +0000 UTCI don't want This Bed We Made to end so soon! It's been so much fun. I really love when games are able to capture the feel of a unique time and place or explore a different culture. Along those same lines, I hope you get to continue Thirsty Suitors at some point. It was one of my favorite first looks you've done this year. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!
Blue72
2023-12-25 05:15:11 +0000 UTCGhost Trick is genuinely incredible, my girlfriend just played through it this year and reexperiencing it was wonderful.
Evan!!
2023-12-24 22:27:12 +0000 UTCHello Welonz. First of all, a Merry Christmas to you and your family! I hope you have a great time. Regarding Lies of P, as much as I want to see you playing this game in a full lets play, I strongly recommend you to play Elden Ring first! Lies of P is a fully-fledged soulslike/soulsborne game and especially the bosses (nearly all of them, with little exceptions) are incredibly hard and will get harder and harder the more you progress. As you have not played a souslike before (please correct me, if I am wrong) this can easily turn your motivation into frustration I think. Elden RIng is a far better start into the soulslike/soulsborne genre, as the open world (and the option to go somewhere else and get stronger) lets you learn soulslike much more relaxed. If you hit a wall in Lies of P, then you need to break through this wall, in Elden Ring you just go to another location or another way first. Don't get me wrong, I love Lies of P and also think, that it is the best soulslike, that is not made from From Software, but as said before Elden Ring is the optimal starting point for new soulsborne players, in order to learn the speciallities of soulslike/soulsborne games. But hey, if you really start Lies of P first, you will of course also have an little bit easier time in Elden Ring, hehe. :-) Besides that, I really really looking forward to a BG3 lets play of you! Really hope you will play it. :-) Happy Holidays Welonz and a great start into 2024. Greetings.
Zischrot
2023-12-24 16:51:34 +0000 UTCI'm glad you chose The Invincible. As a Polish citizen I have to say that Polish text in the game is sometimes kind of strange too and it's not only my opinion, I checked a few Polish streamers and they were surprised as well with some language choices. Lem loved to invent new words, but always explained them in the books. The game developers seem to have taken on too big a task to cope with his writing's prose and simulate his unique style. Despite this, I had a lot of fun playing. Happy Holidays!
WallHammer
2023-12-24 07:26:14 +0000 UTCOooh Lies of P sounds like a fun watch, it was my personal goty. Anyways, thanks for all vids you put out, hope you enjoy the holidays!
dezereks
2023-12-24 04:53:27 +0000 UTCHappy Holidays Welonz! I can't judge you one bit for your reactions as my friend and I went nuts watching Boys Planet (kpop survival show), wooooof that was an emotionally exhausting journey lol.
Suaffle
2023-12-24 01:59:41 +0000 UTCHappy Holiday Welonz, you continue to be one of my favourite (and honestly these days only) LP'ers i watch. Lies of P would be an interesting playthrough though if you're going to dive into souls like games it would be interesting to hear you're thoughts on what originated the genre. As I said before i would love to see you do Baldur's Gate 3. It has companions and characters on par or better than games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age but without the repetitive and fatigue inducing side quests, with the quests more resembling something like Witcher 3 (without the map vomit icon quests). For smaller projects a Fun one to look at that came out a while ago might be Bugsnax. It's an interesting creature collection game in the guise of more of a child friendly game but that ends up going into more mature and interesting topics than one would expect, and it's just pretty fun. Either Way whatever you decide to do I'm looking forward to it.
Kyle Junge
2023-12-24 01:57:19 +0000 UTCI think on the subject of completionism, it is a tricky thing because often the impulse behind completionism is that it can be hard to tell which stuff is actually going to lead to something interesting vs. what is just filler. One thing I've always appreciated about your channel is your willingness to just edit out anything that's boring/repetitive (like repeated failed boss attempts in Sifu or all the trips back to the Stranger in the OW DLC), but I can see how it might feel weird to edit out entire sidequests even if nothing really interesting happens in them, especially if you're weaving them in with a bunch of other stuff which makes it hard to edit around. One option could be that if you find yourself with a bunch of side content you're not sure about, you could always just ask the community which stuff is worth doing - there is the usual crowdsourcing problem of getting a million different answers, but you could probably get a decent idea of which stuff actually has an interesting story attached or has a worthwhile gameplay reward vs. what's just a boring filler quest. At the very least you know the fans aren't going to let you miss THAT quest (whatever THAT quest happens to be in the game in question)
Alexander McClelland
2023-12-24 01:56:12 +0000 UTCWishing you some great holidays, a merry christmas and a happy new year Welonz. T'was another great year and as I recently said on Twitter, I cherish that you're still doing this type of videos even though pratically everyone else as switched to livestreams. Let's play are becoming a forgotten art, but we have you to keep on the tradition !
Captain Kashup
2023-12-24 01:47:36 +0000 UTCNext longplay is Baldur's Gate III :) Anyway, I'd be interested in seeing you continue Thirsty Suitors! It looks very eccentric!
Mikey S
2023-12-24 01:46:30 +0000 UTCI’ll stay on my usual ask and recommendation for The Talos Principle. The Talos Principle 2 just released and has improved on the original in every way, it was worth the wait. It may be a good test run for a less completionist playthrough that you talk about above. If you stick to the story, you don’t miss any narrative content and can cut the playtime down quite a bit. I think this is year 3 or 4 of waiting for the right time, so I’ll cross my fingers again. Another good game is Omori, but it takes quite an emotional toll so beware. My last recommendation is a quick first look at This War of Mine. It’s radically different type of game than what you usually do, but still has a lot of gripping engagement. They have shorter narrative based scenarios and more open ended ones.
Krieger
2023-12-24 01:45:45 +0000 UTCMerry Christmas and happy new year, everyone!
Jeffrey Hardy Quah
2023-12-24 01:36:48 +0000 UTC
